@sdboka

Shadar Haran tells Greandal that the opportunity/job to hurt Rand had been given to another. Then in one of the very last scenes in the book we see Cyndane asking Rand/Lews to save her? Really?

So she is the one that is given the job to hurt him right?

Can Sanderson really afford to make it that obvious? .. more importantly, would RJ really have come up with such an obvious ploy? To me I think that if this is what happened, then there will be a twist to it, something along the lines of Cyndane doing this to trick Lews/Rand, but since it is so obvious we will be shown in a POV that she it's not her intention at all and she plans to use the opportunity as a gambit to get free of her mindtrap and then try to defeat the Great Lord and usurp his power?

Of course, since it is so obvious and the 'damsel in distress' seemed just to convenient... this by itself suggests to me that it really is the truth (or close enough to it). Mierin might not regret what she has done, but if she was subjected to torture then she would regret doing things that lead to her pain.

Of course then there is the whole "why is she being tortured anyway?" I mean she is already mintrapped. So I see there as only being two reasons for teh torture.

1. Torturing is something that happens daily to remind her that she is a slave.

2. They might be torturing her and "accidentally" there was a chance for her to somehow get that message to Rand/Lews. Meaning that they tortured her in order to make her send that plea for help.

Now as for Mierin's use as far as the bore goes. You people mention here that she would have had no idea of what power awaited her on the other side. But you fail to address the actual drilling. No matter what type of power was on the other side, if she understood the exact mechanics of how you drill a hole in the pattern and into the prison, then it is very likely that she would have ben able to figure out how to reseal the the hole.

slaying the great lord however is a ridiculous thing to imagine, even one of the characters that understands the theory best in the book says so.

RJ says that the Great Lord was not the True Power or the taint. Yet in the same letter he goes on saying that the True Power and the taint are aspects of the Great Lord.

Maybe to best understand what he Great Lord is, we need to first understand what he isn't? However since that in itself is not conclusive we can only go by what RJ said in these letters and what the plot his hinting at in the book.

If yo imagine Mashadar being the evil that was left behind after all those people killed each other... it was the pattern itself congregating around that wrongness. Then we apply this train of thought to The Great Lord and the True Power. If the great Lord isn't the True Power but the True Power is part of the Great Lord, then the Great Lord would himself be the will? He would be the manifest of "evil"... or rather the manifestation of what is imprisoned within the bore.

This of course means that there is no way in .... that Rand or anyone can ever kill the Great Lord. But if we imagine the Great Lord reaching out into the bore itself then we wouldn't be able to reseal it as long as his True Source was there. This is where Mashadar and Fain comes into play. Mashadar is just an angry part of the pattern... See it as a cork... now shove that cork into the bottleneck of the prison. The struggle itself as well as all other needed aspects then make the 'cork' melt and become part of the pattern again.

And that is how you seal it.

Women wearing serpent rings "calling lightening upon the tower" could be more symbolic in nature. For instance Elaida gave the Seanchan the means of Traveling. So anything that capture Aes Sedai teaches other Seanchan channelers... if any of those things are in turn used against other Aes Sedai then it would fit Egwene's dream.

Also, the oaths don't wok that way. For instance an Aes Sedai CAN lie as long as they don't realize that they are lying. This suggests that if Aes Sedai beliefs that a person is Shadow Spawn or a dark friend then they can use the one power against person even if that person is just a normal innocent. So if The Seanchan used compulsion on all their capture Aes Sedai and made them believe that anyone they were ordered to attack was a dark friend, then the three oats would not stop them from making the attack.

I believe in Cyndane being a part of the Callandor circle. Rand/Lews seems more mellow than either of his other two incarnations and even seemed far more aware and accepting of his flaws. (such as his desire for Meirin)

I still don't buy that crap about him not being able to love a woman that had sided with the shadow, he broke up with Mierin long before the bore happened. His feelings for her are the same as before, he has always just acted in his own best self interest. (not an entirely bad thing mind you)

So Rand/Lews could very well make Cyndane join the circle. Knowing that girl even if her plea for help is real she probably has several schemes going despite wanting to be rescued. Rand/Lews would know and count on this, he would "rescue her" and allow himself to be lead around by her (see the prophecy about him serving her) but being aware of this he would play on her greed and her love. He would trick her into helping him.

If Mierin and Lews/Rand linked it would always be Lews/Rand that controlled the circle... something Mierin would like to avoid at all costs (unless this would free her from the mindtrap holding her) ... but if two women linked with one man then one of the women would always be leading. In this case it would always be the strongest woman.

Cyndane would happily accept Moraine's assistance in controlling Callandor, after all Moraine has almost no power so not only would she be able to get some measure of satisfactions from seeing Moraine bow to her will... as far as she knew there would be no way for Moraine to gain control of the circle. But one of the boons that Moraine asked from the Finn was Lanfear's Angreal. That Angreal was able to make Moraine as strong as Lanfear (when Lanfear had her full strength)(and Lanfear as strong as Rand?) with Cyndane's diminished strength using as strong an Angreal as that would no doubt tip the scale in Moraine's favor and the Aes Sedai would be able to wrench control away from the other female. Once she had lost control of the circle it would be impossible for Cyndane to free herself from it and anything that she helped do from thereon out would be beyond her control.

Finally there is that viewing Min had... The one where she thought about "a woman long dead and gone needed for Rand to win". Many interpret it as being Moraine because of the whole "It was the only viewing that had ever failed her" and the references to Moraine later... but in this case we have no evidence that the two things are connected. The lines are just there to allow us to conveniently assume that it is Moraine. After all, Moraine is one of the good guys right and a hero? So why wouldn't it be her? Why indeed?

I mean we all KNEW that she was going to be freed from the Tower and come back. We knew that she was not dead all along. In a few books now we have had Rand remember Lanfear/Selene and things she said. Sure he remembers other forsaken and people but his thoughts about Lanfear/Selene always seem to pop up in very foreboding ways.

In conclusion, Cyndane doesn't need to redeem herself or find redemption in helping Rand control Callandor in a circle. (which reminds me, can you truly hold "Cyndane" accountable for Lanfear's crimes? They might share the same soul and the same memories but I'd still say she is a different person. The mind is shaped by the body)